Archive for February, 2017

Another day, another headline: Forwarders under threat! Death of the Middleman! Automate or the industry won’t need you!

It’s not the kind of Monday motivation we look for. But it’s true, we should be worried. We’re under attack. New tech start-ups, ‘game-changing’ market entries from the big guys, aggressive competition from our long-term suppliers, all chipping away at the market share we work so hard to maintain.

In truth, we’ve been fighting a competitive and saturated market since the business was founded in 1994.

It’s been a while since I read any industry news and felt a sense of positivity about the global freight forwarder. Some articles recently have felt more like a smear campaign than news. Is the only way to promote your new venture to attack existing businesses and forwarders in the market?

Shipping is not just about moving containers from A to B – which is the premise of some of the new tech start-ups. A flat rate, inputted to a system, to quote on a container from one destination to another.

On the desk we all know it is so much more.

Daily we experience customs clearance issues, customs brokerage, police escort arrangements, specialist handling, extreme weather conditions, short shipments… the list goes on. Are we expecting a machine to process these considerations and make the same arrangements a human would?

When I tell my friends that I work for a freight forwarder, they look at me blankly. I guess if you’re not in the industry you’d be forgiven for not knowing the term. I explain that we help importers and exporters transport their goods in a safe, efficient and cost effective way. By our own definition a freight forwarder has specialist knowledge to prepare the types of documents required for moving goods via sea, road, rail or air. There’s pick, pack, storage, distribution, warehousing and trucking considerations that need to work in sync for harmonious supply chains. So let’s say Artificial Intelligence takes our place, how long would it take the machine to find the root of a problem, in one single part of the chain.

It’s not that we have anything against new tech start-ups, any entrepreneur developing software designed to make shippers’ lives easier is welcome in our office. When the right online platform comes along we’ll happily embrace it – if it adds value for our customers.

I’ve now tried three of the very publicly heralded freight marketplaces, promising to revolutionise global shipping bookings.

I entered a FOB 40ft Container from Shanghai to Felixstowe, one of the biggest trade lanes in the world. I was hoping for a plethora of choice and super-competitive rates. Quaking in my boots (thinking about my redundancy pay-out) I waited for the results to load – only to be greeted with ‘your route cannot be found, sorry no rates found, no results found.’ I couldn’t even enter a destination on one site. Was I doing something wrong?

And if I’m feeling like this, imagine what a first-time importer would think?

Maybe the freight marketplaces should change their slogans to “making global freight rates so transparent they can’t even be seen.”

We’d all welcome a Sky Scanner-style solution to the movement of global freight. It would certainly make our lives easier- but I feel its living in a dream world.

Even if we replaced people with amazing digitisation, I would like to hope that the future of our world is not based on faceless online encounters. We visit a car dealership for the experience, the satisfaction of selecting the right product, the trust built from the test drive and the bargaining with the salesman. All these tangible aspects of a sale are still crucial for purchasing decisions. People still value people. They appreciate knowledge as value in the supply chain and lean on expertise. This is something technology can never really replace.

We love Andrews Craig Bennett’s article: “War has been declared on forwarders.” Well, if it’s a war they want, try fighting us with the right weapons. We’re fighting back.

Winter Storm Niko hit the entire US North East coastal area earlier this morning, bringing heavy snowfall. Flights, road and rail networks, and container vessel traffic have been disrupted throughout the region. Ports and Airports have been closed, including New York, New Jersey, Boston and Norfolk.

Forecasters said Wednesday morning that the storm was expected to clear the area by Friday morning, but we do not as yet have confirmation as to how long the ports and airports may remain closed.

Please be advised that we expect to experience delays throughout the North American air/road/rail/ocean transportation system for at least the next few days as systems come back to full operational capacity and equipment is repositioned.

We will continue to monitor shipments and advise as appropriate.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to let us know if we can help in any way !